In the opinion of new Red Sox manager Alex Cora, the best offenses turn more swings into more damage.

And a batter can’t do much damage if he’s watching pitches, especially strikes, sail in under his nose.

So in Cora’s eyes, the 2017 Red Sox were missing much more than a thunderous bat in the middle of their lineup — that’s the hole president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski needs to fill. Cora and his coaches are going to instill a more aggressive approach at the plate.

For a franchise that has had a system-wide focus on getting on base via walk or hit by waiting on the right pitch since the early days of Theo Epstein, Cora’s newfangled/old-school approach will represent a not-so-subtle reboot.

Based on last year’s offense, it’s needed.

“We’re going to preach to them to be aggressive – not everybody has to take pitches,” Cora said at his introductory press conference Monday at Fenway Park. “I get it: Work the count. But is it worth it to work the count now? Guys are throwing 98, 99 (mph). So you hunt for a pitch that’s available, and you do damage with it. That’s going to help us out.”

The Red Sox do not lack for an analytics department, but it’s understood around baseball that in Houston, where Cora served as bench coach last year for the World Series champion Astros, the quality and quantity of information made available to players led the pack.

The Sox plan to provide more and better analytics next year, information that will help each hitter “hunt for a pitch” he can do damage with. But implementing Cora’s offensive philosophy goes beyond filling a hitter’s head with pitchers’ tendencies, and it does not mean engineering the best launch angle to allow for more home runs.

In his mind, doing damage also involves an approach to getting more aggressive in the batter’s box, which the Red Sox were not last year.

We all know by now that in the American League, the Sox ranked dead last in home runs and next to dead last in slugging percentage.

Among all 30 teams, however, the Red Sox displayed a knack for missed opportunities that Cora wants to correct.

As a team, the Sox ranked dead last in the majors in the percentage of pitches they swung at — 43.8 percent. They also ranked dead last in the percentage of swings on pitches that were strikes — 69.8 percent.

When it came to swinging at the first pitch, the Red Sox ranked dead last in the majors — 20.9 percent.

Shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ first-pitch swing percentage was the fourth lowest at 11.8, with right fielder Mookie Betts just behind him at 11.9, while left fielder Andrew Benintendi ranked 23rd in the majors at 19.3.

Betts’ production did tail off from his 2016 breakout season, but he hardly was a flop with 24 home runs, 102 RBI and a .264/.344/459 slash line. Bogaerts took a step back in every offensive category.

And while the 2017 Red Sox offense did rank 10th in the majors in the all-important runs scored per game category (4.85), the team had to do a lot more work to gain runs than those who hit with more damaging power.

And while Cora did get an up-close look at the best offense (and best team) in baseball this season, especially in second baseman Jose Altuve, shortstop Carlos Correa and center fielder George Springer, he does not want the Red Sox to become carbon copies of the Astros.

The Sox do need to emulate Houston’s plan of attack.

“Yeah, (the Astros have) special athletes. You’ve got a center fielder that’s 6-(foot-)4, 230 (pounds), but he’s not trying to hit homers,” Cora said. “It’s just about the approach. What they were preaching there was to hunt pitches to do damage. One thing, there’s certain guys here that they’re going to get better. I expect Xander Bogaerts to be a better player. Mookie Betts, he had a great season, but I expect him (to be better). These guys are going to take a step, and when you see Xander driving the ball to right-center against Charlie Morton (in Game 4 of the Division Series against the Astros), I’m like, ‘That’s him.’ ”

Cora stressed that outside of the Red Sox being, on average, shorter than the Astros, they have similar athleticism. And while he wants the Sox to remain aggressive on the basepaths, he seemed to counsel a more selective approach that allows the hitter to create the havoc.

“The Boston Red Sox are athletic, so we’re going to take advantage of that. I want them to understand situations,” Cora said. “I understand baserunning is important, but the value of the outs — when can you be aggressive? When do you have to let the guy do damage at the plate? We’re going to do that. Obviously there’s other stuff of the game that they’re going to learn, not only from me but from the coaching staff, and we’re going to take advantage of that. And they’re going to be better baseball players, I think. Hopefully they listen to their manager.”